Wings and People of the 20th Century

Permanent exhibition of the Polish Aviation Museum in Krakow.

The exhibition Wings and People of the 20th Century—located in the historic Main Hangar and covering the historical background of the development of aviation from the 1920s to the second half of the 1950s, with particular emphasis on the two-track development of Polish aviation technology caused by the political changes after 1939—is a unique project. For it presents not only the aircraft themselves, but also the complicated fates of Polish aviators and aeronautical engineers who contributed to the development of world aviation. It is not only the content that counts in the narrative, but also the design, which has become the philosophical basis for the story of the people and aviation of the 20th century.

The subsequent exhibition spaces—the History Warehouses, the Metamuseum, the Engine House and the Archaeology of Aviation—are complementary to the main narrative and form a composite structure of witness stories of more than 100 years of aviation history. These exhibitions are meant to stimulate the imagination and perception, to interact from different levels that are relevant to understanding the intricate history of the collection of the Polish Aviation Museum in Krakow and to somewhat force a departure from classical exhibition forms in favour of "playing with aviation". Fun, but also to illustrate what an aircraft engine is, for example, as a work of engineering and how it has influenced the development of civilisation.